November 5, 2007: This
website is an archive of the former website, traprockpeace.org,
which was created 10 years ago by Charles Jenks. It became one of the
most populace sites in the US, and an important resource on the antiwar movement,
student activism, 'depleted' uranium and other topics. Jenks authored virtually all of its web pages and multimedia content (photographs, audio, video, and pdf files. As the author and registered owner of
that site, his purpose here is to preserve an important slice of the
history of the grassroots peace movement in the US over the past decade.
He is maintaining this historical archive as a service to the greater
peace movement, and to the many friends of Traprock Peace Center. Blogs
have been consolidated and the calendar has been archived for security
reasons; all other links remain the same, and virtually all blog content
remains intact.

THIS SITE NO LONGER REFLECTS THE CURRENT
AND ONGOING WORK OF TRAPROCK PEACE CENTER, which
has reorganized its board and moved to Greenfield, Mass. To contact Traprock
Peace Center, call 413-773-7427 or visit its site.
Charles Jenks is posting new material to PeaceJournal.org,
a multimedia blog and resource center.

This is an idea that has been voiced for a while and was recently adopted by the Cairo Conference as a recommendation. See the Cairo Declaration. Traprock had participated in discussions of this idea, as noted below with its proposal that Nobel Peace Laureates go to Iraq. We wrote to Jimmy Carter on December 23 proposing that he head such a delegation.

Action Ideas from Voices in the Wilderness and Traprock Peace Center(sent via email to lists)

Greetings - Traprock is reprinting below a letter from Voices in the Wilderness and offering its own campaign idea as well. (VITW's suggestions concerning a letter are gearred for US citizens. Our international friends may wish to adapt the suggested format to a non-American perspective.(Photo of Muslim couple in Wichita, KS by Charlie Jenks)

Another campaign suggestiona (and perhaps others have proposed this as well) is one that I proposed on Oct 1 to a major international peace organization. I then followed-up a phone conversation with an email that included the following:

"As you know, Voices in the Wilderness has organized citizen groups to go to Iraq as human shields and witnesses. [I expressed doubt that this would deter the start of a bombing campaign by itself.]"

"What if Nobel Peace Prize Laureates went? I am thinking of the 20 or so who signed the appeal for a decade of education in non-violence. For example, they could go in pairs and stay in Baghdad for a spell to be replaced by another pair."

It's an idea, and a desperate one perhaps, but desperate measures may be the only ones available soon. It would dramatize the situation and perhaps cause a pause and enable international outrage to intensify. (Photo of Kids at peace rally in Greenfield, MA by Charlie Jenks)

This writer believes that the US is trying to get the UN to effectively wash its hands of the situation with the new "compromise" resolution. The UN would feel it did not authorize force, while the Bush Administration would point to the UN resolution as suportive (even if mildly so) as well as the Congressional resolution. If it did not have a suportive UN resolution, it has said it could rely on the Congressional as all the authorization it would need to attack Iraq. Recently, I have talked and written to another group that works a lot with Nobel Peace Prize winners. They have considering whether to support the idea and convey it to the Laureates.

Peace,
Charlie Jenks
Traprock Peace Center
http://grassrootspeace.org

October 15 2002

TWO IMMEDIATE ACTIONS (as suggested by Voices in the Wilderness) (Photo of Khafar Macknala in Iraq by Voices in Wilderness)

As the Security Council begins to debate a new resolution relating to military action against Iraq, Voices in the Wilderness would like to generate a huge number of letters to specific members of the SC. Mr. Hans von Sponeck, former head of the UN Food for Oil prograim in Iraq until he resigned in protest in 2000, has concurred that this could be an effective action at this time. Letters should go to three of the permanent members of the SC (France, China - President for November, Russia) and to Cameroun (was President for October) and to Denmark (currently heading the EU). Here is the contact information for the member states we are suggesting.

[Traprock Note: We have researched the Security Council contact information and have updated it significantly. We have also added contact information for the Danish Presidency of the European Union. You may find a complete list of Security Council members at http://www.un.org/Docs/scinfo.htm#MEMBERS.Here is a letter sent to the following missions by email]

From Voices in the Wilderness: "Write short letters saying how as US citizens we have worked to keep our nation from escalation of the economic and military warfare on Iraq. Tell them that now we ask them to do all in their power to keep the US from carrying out its war plan against the Iraqi people. (Photo - Traprock Peace Center)

And we would like to keep track of how many such letters are sent. Just send a brief e-mail to info@vitw.org saying you sent some number of letters. We are encouraging other organizations to begin similar campaigns.

And while you are at the writing desk: Please write to Jimmy Carter. Congratulate him on receiving the Nobel Peace
Prize, and ask that he continue to use his unique position to speak out vigorously against military action in Iraq and against the
administration's arrogant policies toward the UN and toward other nations (the so-called Bush Doctrine). Write to President Jimmy Carter, FAX to 404-331-0283. If you would rather leave a message, you can call the Carter offices at 404-331-3900 and ask for extension 125 to leave a recorded message. [Traprock Note: If you fax Jimmy Carter, we suggest sending a letter to his following mailing address as well: